Psychologist Walt Odets’ first book, In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS, was released in 1995. At the time, before the introduction of truly effective drugs, a hopelessness prevailed in America’s gay communities that has since seemingly diminished. With today’s preventative medications and the legalization of gay marriage, it is easy to believe that younger gay Americans will simply avoid the traumas that plagued previous generations. But for Odets, that hope in changing attitudes is overrated; it ignores the deeper issues that many gay men suffer from.

In 30 years of private practice, Odets has seen the same recurring issues confront his patients. “And I see them still,” he says of today’s younger men. “The issues now are the same issues from 30 years ago.” His latest work, Out of the Shadows: Reimagining Gay Men’s Lives, extends the analysis of that first book to examine the emotional aftermath of AIDS and reveal the anxieties and shame that continue to affect gay communities and their hopes. Odets refers to them as “threats,” and for him, they also lie at the very heart of gay male identity.

“The idea of being gay as an identity never occurred to me as a kid. It didn’t matter,” the 72-year-old Odets says; it wasn’t until the AIDS epidemic began that Odets started to consider gayness in terms of identity. Odets’ father was progressive playwright and screenwriter Clifford Odets; Walt realized, once AIDS emerged, that his peculiarly liberating upbringing made him especially sensitive to seeing the effects of stigmatization on others. “People from stigmatizing, abusive, or rejecting families very quickly develop a gay identity. It’s reactive,” Odets says. “The support, or lack of support, from the immediate family is by far the most influential issue.”

 It’s no surprise, then, that Out of the Shadows addresses the myriad issues affecting contemporary gay male life through individual stories—those of Odets’ own patients. In each chapter, whether he’s dissecting the isolating effects of gay dating apps or the ineffectiveness of certain HIV-prevention tactics, Odets also narrates the lives of Paul, Aaron, Shaun, and countless others. He re-creates dialogue from their therapy sessions as these men come to terms (or not) with the root problems of self-confidence and shame that have wreaked havoc on their personal lives, problems which also speak to the broader issues at stake in gay communities across America before, during, and after the epidemic.

“They are amalgams of two or sometimes even three people because people have overlapping concerns,” explains Odets. “I don’t think I’ve seen anyone in my practice who is unique.” Unique or not, Odets still wanted these characters to reflect the realities that crossed his path. He spent the last 20 years furiously scribbling notes in between sessions to retain certain details, which now help to flesh out his analysis: where exactly someone was sitting when he revealed an intimate detail, the specific words a man used to describe his feelings about other gay men, or the peculiar look on someone’s face as he realized it was his own father that made him hate himself. “I think those kinds of particulars are important,” Odets says, and he has used them to make Shadows’ arguments both more compelling and convincing.

Out of the Shadows has a wide breadth of topics, but it’s focused on the patients that Odets sees most often and knows best: gay males. However, Odets says that the book is essentially about discovering, being, and living authentically as oneself. For him, this can apply to anyone and offer more concrete hope for any person overcoming the ramifications of stigmatization. “I wasn’t very keen on writing another book,” Odets admits, adding that writing this book was particularly, personally painful. “When I see stigmatized people and see the roots of that stigma….It’s painful to see, but it’s something I would like to help.”

Rhett Morgan is a writer and translator based in Paris.